The Languages of the Eastern Family of the East New Guinea Highland Stock

XVIIL Gadsup Phoneme and
Toneme Units

CHESTER and MARJORIE FRANTZ

1. Introduction

The segmental phonemes and the phonemic tones of Gadsup will be de-
scribed in this chapter.^

The segmental phonemes each occur with two or more allophones (ex-
cept the bilabial nasal and glottal stop) which have similar phonetic charac-
teristics and occurrences. The description of the distribution of the pho-
nemes is based upon the four types of syllables observed. The four pho-
nemic tones (two levels, two glides) are described in terms of their con-
trast and of their distinctive distributional and allophonic characteristics.

The existence of tones was at an early date highlighted to us through
the fairly frequent use of 'whistle talk'. In Gadsup whistle talk, not only
are the tones conveyed, but also the segmental phonemes of the utterance
are articulated.

2. Segmental Phonemes

The segmental phonemes of Gadsup consist of nine consonants: /?, t, k,
q, h, d, m, n, y; and six vowels: /, a, u, e, aa, o.

1 This paper was prepared under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
The material for it was collected over a period of two years residence at the village
of Ommomunta. Much of the detailed checking of this paper was done with the help
of two informants, Aupi and Yaduma, both young men of about eighteen years of
age. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance and encouragement of Howard
McKaughan and the editorial help of Alan Pence. The paper first appeared in pub-
lished form as pp. 1-11 in Papers in New Guinea Linguistics, No. 5, Linguistic Circle
of Canberra Publication (Series A: Occasional Papers, No. 7) (Australian National
University, 1966), and is reissued here by permission.

406

4 JO Part Three: Gadsup- Agarabi

2.4, Frequency

Frequency of phonemes was determined from a study of field notes com-
prising approximately 5,926 segments and 1,500 grammatical words. The
consonants occur with a slightly higher frequency than the vowels. For ex-
ample, one of the texts contained 5 1 3 consonants and 45 1 vowels.

Each of the nasals occurs more frequently than any one of the stops or
the continuant, respectively, the ratio being at least two to one. The velar
consonant /k/ and glottal stop /q/ each occur one third more frequently than
each of the bilabials / p/ or /b/ or the continuant /y/; and also occur more
frequently (almost one-fourth) than either one of the alveolar phonemes
/t/ or /d/. The bilabial stops and the continuant, /p/, /b/, and /y/, are the
least frequent of the consonants.

The front vowel /i/ is the most frequent, occurring three times more than
each of the back vowels /u/ and /o/, and twice as often as each of the two
front vowels /e/ and /aa/ and the central vowel /a/,

3. Suprasegmental Phonemes

Four contrastive tones have been noted in Gadsup: / 7 high, / V low, / ^/
up-glide, and / 7 down -glide. We shall first indicate the various contrasts,
and then proceed to amplify why it appears advisable to analyze the glides
as units and not as sequences of two level tonemes. Finally we will state
some of the distributional characteristics of the tones,

3.1. Contrast between the Four Tones

A. Contrast between high and low: makuni 'earthquake', makiini 'village';
hequ 'I go', bequ 'I stay.'

B. Contrast between high and up-glide: yapumi 'a grasshopper', kabani
'a frog'; katbni Type of grasshopper, konami 'a fog or cloud bank'.

C. Contrast between high and down-glide: odemi 'a small animal', bdemi
'He is abstaining'; inde 'I hear', aanda 'trunk of a tree'.

D. Contrast between low and up-glide: aqnemi *He throws away', bqenii
'spirit'; apu 'ripe', apii 'knot hole in tree'.

E. Contrast between low and down-glide: anoni 'the securing knot for
bark skirts',, cmon; 'obese'; adni 'a path', ahni 'the point of . . .'.

F. Contrast between up-glide and down-glide: iinaa 'a bag', yunaa 'food';
akam name of a tree, aakam 'his/your ear'.

XV/II. Gadsup Phonemoand Toneme Units 413

3.4. Stress

Stress is nonphonemic. In analogous environments syllables (A) with aa,
i\ or o have more stress than those with a, i, or w; (B) with high, rising, or
falling tones have more stress than those with low; (C) with a phonetic
stop onset have more stress than those with nonstop onset. Combinations
of these features lead to varying degrees of noncontrastive stress.

The Languages of the Eastern
Family of the East New Guinea
Highland Stock

Edited by HOWARD McKAUGHAN

This book is published with the assistance of a grant from the National Science
Foundation.

Copyright © 1973 by the University of Washington Press
Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.

Anthropological Studies

in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea

James B. Watson, Editor

VOLUMES PUBLISHED:

I. The Languages of the Eastern Family of the East New Guinea Highland
Stock, edited by Howard McKaughan

II. Physical Anthropology of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea,
by R. A. Littlewood

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:

The Languages of the eastern family of the east
New Guinea highland stock.

(Anthropological studies in the eastern highlands
of New Guinea, V, 1)

Reports of research by the New Guinea Micro-
evolution Project.

Bibliography: p.

L Papuan languages. 2, Kainantu region —
Languages. I. McKaughan, Howard, 1922-
IL Title. in. Series.

PL660LA35 499M2 72-13131

ISBN 0-295-95 132-X

ed.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
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